FirstAlert(tm) Daily 2/18: Winged Prayers

- Market Commentary -

February 18, 2010 (FinancialWire) (By Bob Farley) — Stocks put together gains yesterday, based on the ephemeral good report from here and there, a bouncy-back dollar, and high hopes, dare we say.

While the world waits for financial healing, traders try to convince themselves all is well, and Average Joe watches what would have been his annual raise go to feather the summer nest of some well-deserving executive (sarcasm alert!), anyone not versed enough in the machinations of market ups and downs needs to keep invested in the companies that are going to be alive in five years.

 [Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=bob+farley to see more commentaries and articles by Bob Farley.]

The FirstAlert(tm) “Money Index” is an indicator of the depth of market direction or indirection. While not always including the same stocks, the combined NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX 25 Most Actives and combined NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX greatest Percentage Losers and Percentage Winners (weighted against pure monetary loss/gain) indicate the direction in which the mass of money is flowing, as well as the general focus of the market. The most recently published FirstAlert(tm) Money Index Synopses are accessible via FinancialWire.net (at http://www.financialwire.net/?s=index+synopsis).  The data providing the basis for the FirstAlert(tm) Money Index is provided courtesy of Stock Smart, and complete Stock Smart charts and closing summaries are directly accessible via a dedicated Investrend.com webpage (at http://www.investrend.com/fa-index).

The FirstAlert(tm) Economics Calendar lists Producer Price Index (PPI) for January (8:30 a.m.), Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m.), Leading Indicators Index for January (10 a.m.), Philadelphia Fed Index for February (10 a.m.), Treasury announces 2, 5, & 7-year note auctions (11 a.m.).

The FirstAlert(tm) Events Calendar showcases AIV Investor Day; CL, MO, PEP, EL at CAGNY Conference; CR Analyst Conference; DE, TNB, ITW, NOC at Barclays Capital Industrial Select Conference; MSCC, NETL, TER, TUNE at Oppenheimer Semiconductor Summit; NYB, DNBK, FFIC, LKFN at American Bankers Association Community Bank Investor Conference; RES, CRR, GDP, REXX at EnerCom Oil & Services Conference; TMRK at Wells Fargo Denver Equity Forum.

FirstAlert(tm) Website of the Day: http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Mark_Twain/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn/

Quote of the Day: “Cosmetics is a boon to every woman, but a girl’s best friend is still a nearsighted man.” Yoko Ono

Today is: Gambian Independence Day, Battery Day.

Happy Birthday: Alessandro Volta, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Adolphe Menjou, Edward Arnold, Wendell Willkie, Jack Palance, Bill Cullen, George Kennedy, Yoko Ono, Judy Rankin, Dennis DeYoung, Cybill Shepherd, Juice Newton, John Travolta, Vanna White, Molly Ringwald.

Today in History: The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate began in 1841 and lasted until March 11. In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated in 1861 as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America. John Tunstall was murdered in 1878 by outlaw Jessie Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published for the first time in 1885. The first official flight with air mail took place in 1911 in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivered 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away. The first Academy Awards were announced in 1929. In 1979, snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only recorded time in history.

[FirstAlert(tm) was created by Gayle Essary, founder of Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend Information. The opinions expressed in FirstAlert(tm) do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Investrend.]

FinancialWire(tm) is committed to serving the financial community through true journalism and providing relevant resources to investors. Standards-based, independent equity research on numerous public companies is available through the Investrend Research Syndicate (http://www.investrend.com/reports) written by FIRST Research Consortium (http://www.investrend.com/FIRST) member-providers. Free annual reports and company filings for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Investrend Information Syndicate (at http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279). FinancialWire(tm), in cooperation with the Investrend Broadcast Syndicate, also provides complete, daily conference call and webcast schedules as a service to shareholders and investors via the FirstAlert(tm) Network’s “FirstAlert(tm) Daily” (http://www.financialwire.net/news-alerts/).

FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) website  (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.